INDEX

1.1 COMPANY OVERVIEW

Google (or the company) is one of the leading internet technology and advertising companies in the world. The company specializes in internet search engines and related advertising services. The company provides useful and relevant information to people who rely on Google search to provide the answers they are seeking. It offers a range of services and tools for advertisers of all sizes, from simple text ads to display and mobile advertising, and to publishers. The company provides its products and services in more than 100 languages and in more than 50countries, regions, and territories. The company manages its operations under a single operating segment, which generates revenue primarily by providing relevant, online advertising. However, Googles business is primarily focused around the major key areas, including search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise. It maintains a large index of websites and other online content, which are freely available through its search engine. Google generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising. The company primarily operates in the US. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California and employs 24,400 people. The company recorded revenues of $29,321 million during the financial year ended December 2010 (FY2010), an increase of 24% over 2009. The operating profit of the company was $10,381 million in FY2010, an increase of 24.9% over 2009. Its net profit was $8,505 million in FY2010, an increase of 30.4% over 2009.

2.1 GENERAL INFORMATION

2.1.1 WHOLE COMPANY

2.1.1.1 TERM MANAGEMENT

Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin brought Google to life in September 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 20,000 employees worldwide, with a management team that represents some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry.

2.1.1.2 MAJOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Google (or the company) is a global technology company focused on improving the ways people connect with information. The company's key products and services include the following:
Search: A vast index of websites and other online content Advertising:

Google Search AdWords AdSense program Google Display

Videos, text, images, and other interactive ads Google Mobile Mobile advertising Search by voice Search by sight Search by location Google Local Google Places Google Tags Google Boost Operating systems and platforms: Android Google Chrome OS and Google Chrome Google TV Google Books Enterprise: Google Apps (which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites, among other features) Google Search Appliance (real-time search of business applications, intranet applications, and public websites) Google Site Search (custom search engine) Google Commerce Search (for online retail enterprises) Google Checkout Google Maps Application Programming Interface Google Earth Enterprise

2.1.1.3 REVENUE ANALYSIS

Google The company recorded revenues of $29,321 million during the financial year ended December 2010(FY2010), an increase of 24% over 2009. In FY2010, the US, the company's largest geographic market, accounted for 47.9% of the total revenues. Google generates its revenues through online advertising. Revenues by Division The company generated 96% of the total revenues in FY2010 from advertising. It derives most of the additional revenues from offering display advertising management services to advertisers, ad agencies, and publishers; and through licensing its enterprise products, search solutions, and web search technology. Revenues by Geography The US, Google's largest geographical market, accounted for 47.9% of the total revenues in FY2010. Revenues from the US reached $14,056 million in FY2010, an increase of 25.6% over 2009.The UK accounted for 11.4% of the total revenues in FY2010. Revenues from the UK reached $3,329 million in FY2010, an increase of 11.5% over 2009. Rest of the world accounted for 40.7% of the total revenues in FY2010. Revenues from rest of theworld reached $11,936 million in FY2010, an increase of 26% over

2009.

2.1.2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

According to Google (2011), even though Google has grown drastically, operating in more than 60 countries, it still maintains a small company feel. The organisational structure of Google is constructed to facilitate innovation, which is a critical element of the company culture. Unlike typically modern workplaces, Googles organisational structure is more horizontal with less hierarchy (Social Media Commando, 2010). This facilitates cross networking which in turn boosts the companys strategic capability by enhancing innovativeness and encouraging effective cooperation between small units (Manu, 2011).

2.3 Company Strategies to assure innovation

2.3.1 Strategic patience Google's mission to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful is a very long-term approach. In order to achieve its overall mission Google aspires to be involved with every possible information management tool (e.g. Google Earth, Google Analytics or YouTube). In doing so, according to Eric Schmidt (member of Google's administrative board) the short-term profitability of new projects and products is not Google's main objective (Iyer, et al. 2008). The pursuit of permanent innovation in order to build value and capability is much more important for Google and it refuses to judge any new development based on its profitability. This can be explained by the fact that Google's advertising capabilities are enormous, profitable and can subsidize many newly established and unprofitable projects. Moreover, Google's high emphasis on customer needs and the constant attempt to align its products with customers intentions lets Google

believe that new products will monetize themselves over time on their own. For instance search-based advertising, a main source of income for Google, has been identified using this mentality (Iyer, et al. 2008). 2.3.2 Investments in technological infrastructure Google invested a lot of capital resources to build up its operating platform and to further develop internal technologies (Cusumano, 2011). Now it owns a highly sophisticated network infrastructure based on a proprietary technology. On the one hand this network eases the coordination and handling of the enormous amount of data Google has to process every second. On the other hand this infrastructure gives the company the entire control over the evolution of its new projects and products. Regarding Google's approach as an innovation-driven company the technical infrastructure provides Google with the capability of an extremely fast and efficient product-development life cycle. The companys infrastructure is also the base of Google's close relationship to its consumers; one of its unique selling points. Firstly, Google can interact with consumers directly through their infrastructure and gets immediate response to newly launched products. Moreover, Googles infrastructure also operates as a base for a dynamic interplay of Google, third party innovators (which create new applications that integrate Googles operating modes and data from several external sources), users and advertisers that largely enriches Googles innovation capability.

2.3.3 Growth Strategy

One of the main objectives Google pursues in its strategies is to secure and enlarge its coverage in the World Wide Web. Google mainly achieves this through new products or supplemental services and applications to their products, which are developed within the company. Furthermore, Google always aimed to acquire suitable companies that fit with Googles strategic direction (Gaulke, 2008). Then, in the majority of cases, these companies integrate well within Googles product portfolio. It is also possible that the acquired company runs as an independent unit within the Google conglomerate like for instance YouTube. In doing so, Google does not wait until a particular market is developed in contrast to Microsoft, which usually does not enter a market until it has a

certain level of maturity. Google, for example, required Android as a start-up project with 8 members of staff in 2005 (Manjoo, 2011).

3 CONCLUSION
In order to propose recommendation, interpretations of the SWOT analysis provided by Datamonitor 360 (2011) which reflected the trends in the industry as well as internal trends within Google as an organisation (see Appendix).

3.1 Google should focus more on the global mobile advertising market
As stated in Datamonitor 360 (2011) the global mobile advertising market is expected to recover and have a stable growth in the near future and forecasts show that the industry will be worth $25 billion worldwide by the year 2015. This significant growth is in a major part due to the increase in popularity of smartphones both in developed and emerging countries (Datamonitor 360, 2011). Therefore, it demonstrates the industry has a high potential to provide growth opportunity broaden Googles sources of revenue. In addition to this, such a move will also be in line with Googles philosophy of being the first mover in a market. Also, they will have a competitive advantage as its Android platform is gaining popularity. For example 500,000 Android smartphones are activated daily and just 150,000 Apple Iphones are activated (Datamonitor 360, 2011). Furthermore Android is forecasted to capture 40% market share in 2011 and 46% by 2015 (Datamonitor 360, 2011). Therefore Google has the tools and means to enter the global mobile advertising market.

3.2 Focus on developing the market share in the mobile payments market
Together with Citi, MasterCard and Sprint, Google developed Google Wallet, which is a new mobile application, which allows users to tap and pay at stores (Datamonitor 360, 2011). In essence, Google Wallet will support transactions through using two methods: a PayPass eligible Citi MasterCard and a virtual Google Prepaid card. Moreover, by using near field communication, consumers will be able to make secure transactions simply by tapping the phone at any PayPass-enabled terminal at checkouts (Datamonitor 360, 2011). Also, Google Wallet will be accepted at more than 124,000 PayPass-enabled merchants in the US and more than 311,000 globally (Datamonitor 360, 2011). By focusing on developing this product and taking advantage of the mobile payments market, Google will be able to analyse consumers shopping habits therefore enabling the company to further personalise their products and to suit different customers needs. Also, by tapping in this yet undeveloped market Google will be able to increase its revenues in the coming years.

3.3 Developing a voice enabled search engine

There are three main reasons why Google should consider such a strategy. Firstly, Apple has already developed such a technology and introduced it with the new Iphone 4s. However, Siri (Apples voice enabled assistant) has only three available languages, English, German and French. It already attracted consumers interest and captured a significant share in the market (He, 2011). Therefore, Google needs to take appropriate actions in order to protect its share in the smartphones industry. Secondly, as He (2011) stated the voice enabled search engine is a developing trend in the industry as it proved to be popular with consumers because it is convenient and efficient. In this case, the authors recommend Google to take advantage of costumers reactions towards Siri and develop a new and improved voice enabled search engine. Thirdly, Siri bypass Googles search platform and instead uses Yelp, Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha (He, 2011) As a result, Google may suffer a decrease in the popularity of its search engine. Therefore, Google should develop this voice-searched engine by utilizing its search platform to deliver better search results and compete in the market.